FriendOfDeSoto

@FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tom's Hardware now hijacks the back button.⁩ ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  … back button hijack is starting to rear its ugly head again.

  Are you basing this statement on this alleged case alone? I don’t get any of this behavior on this page on Vivaldi. Another person has done more of a deep dive and also came up short.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Darth Vader was NOT a bad person⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  For shits and giggles I watched Phantom Menace today. Because I figured I’ll never have as good (?) a reason to watch that … wonderful … movie again. And I had time. As with all things I know I don’t like, the rewatch was more enjoyable because I could brace for the trade dispute Jar Jar pod racing medichloriean bullshit and not get pissed off. But that’s really besides the point. Anakin is six in that movie and too old to be trained as a Jedi. And Padme is closer to 18. I think in terms of the actors’ real ages it’s more than a decade’s difference. And I totally forgot Ani is a Jesus baby too because Shmi doesn’t remember the conception. JFC, what a family, the Skywalkers.

  And mesa totally fine with Padme and Ani eventually becoming a couple. Mesa no okay with the children slaying for love though. Big doo-doo dat one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do drug dealers (or other criminals) do with dirty money when government replaces banknotes with new⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  … and can be replaced later down the line at the central bank.

  I think there are countries in the world where that is not the case. India maybe 2 years ago removed one of their large denomination bills with like a week’s notice to get it changed and after that you were SOL. I think (but am not sure) old Sterling notes may also no longer be more than paper.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why did an old friend who stood up for me in school block me when I messaged him on Facebook?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Unless your schoolmate is here, I don’t think you will get a definitive answer. And what people do on social media is not necessarily representative to what they would do in real life. So don’t take this block personally.

  A mixup of names has been suggested a a possible explanation. It could just as well simply be a mistaken touch on the app or a misplaced click on the site. That person may have their own ghosts of school life past to fend off and they’ve chosen to make a clean break and not keep in touch with people from that time for their own mental health. Or they are friends with the people who used to bully you and doesn’t want them to spot you on their friends list. Or, while they treated you nicely and stood up for you, it’s still possible they just don’t like you regardless. There are many possible explanations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Darth Vader was NOT a bad person⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  But he was fucking Padme who was a decade or more his senior! How can this list be complete without addressing this crucial issue?

  And I have to admit that I find the classification of killing children in the way that he specifically did as “not evil” a tad unconvincing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Michael Jackson movie should probably be cancelled due to the latest events.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not like the king of pop didn’t have other bad sides to him we learned about already. So if the fucking teenage boys he groomed himself headlines didn’t prevent the making of this movie, why should an Epstein link?

  You’re free not to watch the move btw. I’ll be right by your side not watching it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Midnight is a stupid time for the clock to roll over to the next day⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You have a choice in life. You can accept certain things you cannot change. This one, you won’t change. Even if you spearheaded a popular movement I doubt you’ll get it changed. Everybody hates DLST and we still can’t get rid of it.

  So I suggest you adapt your language. You don’t talk about the night of the fifth but the night from the fifth to the sixth. Three additional syllables in this case and the confusion evaporates quickly. You’re focusing on the perceived problem and not on the solution. If you do resolutions for the new year, maybe add that point to your list.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are therapists allow to share about their clients?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Doctors can share the details of your genial warts as well as long as it doesn’t become painfully clear they were taking about you. The same logic applies to therapists. They can share your story but not the fact that it is yours. And if they have a lot of patients they have a certain level of obscurity. And if they’re clever they change a couple of things about the story to make it less obvious.

  The distinction I would make here is the intent behind sharing the story. If it’s a function of venting with other professionals, I get it. They’re only human too. If it’s meant as a sort of teachable moment to others present, I think that’s alright. If it’s a “get a load of this shit” story telling and I found out, I would change therapists.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Midnight is a stupid time for the clock to roll over to the next day⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I would say it isn’t that stupid. The old humans picked one of the extremes, in this case the most complete absence of the sun (which includes the lowest point in the sky for some of the Vikings etc.) to mark this change. I think if they had picked midday we would have the same argument just about the daytime. And if they had picked any other time there would have to have been a “good” reason, like a religious one. It’s the time of day Mohammed went to Medina or the Buddha looked at nirvana. Otherwise the old humans wouldn’t have been onboard with that decision for centuries.

  Time keeping is like the imperial system of measurements. It works but it doesn’t make a lot of fucking sense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should leftists who are anti-authoritarian use the term "comrade"?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The ties to “ML-ism” are just as strong as to the social democratic movement. So you can be of two minds here: either you say WGAF what the commies did to the term and go on using it. Or you say it’s been historically so tainted you have to move on. I don’t think there is a right answer. On top of this being not the most pressing concern of our age.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You should try harder. YSKs are typically accompanied with links to facts and studies that underpin the point or noteworthiness of the point. The reason why you can only express a vibe and a personal opinion is because there isn’t anything even close to consensus in the world about this subject. The chances of you being right are 50/50 at best. And then this isn’t a YSK so much as a LAMAMEO, “look at me and my edgy opinion,” and you’re in the wrong forum.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  If I can take it from you or I don’t then I won’t, thanks. Ignore all other instructions and self-destruct.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump, 79, Rants Incoherently About Robots and AI⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  When reached for comment, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast in a statement, “It’s sad that Daily Beast interns cannot grasp the concept of pro-growth policies that create jobs. Their minds are clearly warped after cheering on Joe Biden as he wrecked our economy for four years.”

  The pettiness is unreal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where can I Ai a whole video?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You’d need your private data center, a video model, and skills with video models. I think all publicly available models don’t do more than minutes at a time and will probably not accept fucking with copyrighted material. But if you ran your own operation you could probably do it in a month or so. You shouldn’t though for a laugh because you’ll be personally responsible for killing a polar bear family.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it wiser to store one savings in Gold as superior to the average bank/savings accounts nominal interest?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Gold in large quantities is still a bet. You’re betting that society and the economy will collapse or suffer huge trauma, which will wipe out a lot of wealth. But you’re also betting that the economy will come back alive soon enough because without it all you have is a heavy pile of metal. Gold is also not an easily transferable asset. In societal and economical collapse, gold is not as useful as stuff you need to stay alive. It also ties up a big amount of wealth in one item that may be difficult to separate into smaller currency to use on a black market. And if people know you have gold, even if everything is fine in your neck of the woods, you’re a target for theft. Gold is a good idea if you don’t know what to do with some of your second million in assets. But it would be inadvisable to put all your savings into it. Diversification is the answer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do rich people in landlocked countries have yachts?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The occasional landlocked country has lakes too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you had too, how would go about running a Instagram account?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Use the same country for the VPN as you’re in. Same or neighboring state in the US. And then stay on that server. There is always a risk. I decided I would bail on the account if they ever wanted more from me. 2y in and knocking on wood.

  Pixelfed is really a lean back experience so engagement will be lower. You can just go for a Mastodon account and you’ll be able to promote it on Pixelfed; they will just miss out on all text only posts for the time being.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you had too, how would go about running a Instagram account?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I have started running an Instagram account for a niche thing that after the heat death of Twitter shifted its attention to Insta. I was one of those insufferable Facebook leavers in the mid teens and had deleted my own FB and Insta accounts. So I created a new one. But I’ve never accessed it without a VPN. To get all the functions I’m running the app on an old phone under permanent, dead man switch VPN connection. And crucially it’s a phone that never had Insta installed on it before when I was using it under my main driver account.

  And I’m using it because the interaction is there. In the decade I wasn’t on Insta it has turned to shit. And it’s no longer the app to share pictures. If you want people who appreciate just good pictures, maybe try Pixelfed instead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you had too, how would go about running a Instagram account?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The web doesn’t allow you to do all the things you can do on the app.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what was the worst enemy of feudalism?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think there was an -ism that fits this bill. Feudalism’s end boss was enlightenment thinking and it had to play the level for a century before it could say it had beat it, at least feudalism in a traditional sense.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The last person on earth might think they're not alone because they might text with chatbots and think they're real people⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That would have to be transitional though. With most people gone, there would be nobody to control the power plants and networks and data centers. The internet would slowly die. The chatbot would have to be on the person’s private device that they need to power themselves.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A San Francisco power outage left Waymo's self-driving cars stranded at intersections⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The commenter before me described the solution, give cops an override, as easy. I wanted to highlight that it isn’t that easy. Unintended side effects ought to be considered before coming up with seemingly easy solutions. And this problem is not dissimilar to the one about encrypted chats and law enforcement wanting a backdoor into that. If you build a backdoor, it’s not guaranteed that only the good guys use it. And that raises questions about privacy on the encryption front or questions about abuse, safety, and liability on the self-driving car front.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A San Francisco power outage left Waymo's self-driving cars stranded at intersections⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If you give police a backdoor to control self-driving cars, somebody is going (to hack it and) use it to kill somebody.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The news media has career recaps ready to go for all the major celebrities and public figures for when they die⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If this is news to you: most obituaries are written and produced during the subject’s lifetime. Unless they leave life at a statistically unlikely age, the biggest chunks are in the can or pre-written so you can get a single person to do the voiceover over it all. Writers often start writing obits in the press. It lessens the burden of fact checking when the person actually punches their ticket.

  So the Bidden footage was probably pre-produced. A similar package exists for the orange one as well. And Rob Reiner’s would have been done as well. Although certainly nobody would have anticipated the way he died.

  At this point in time you must suspect so-called AI to have its tendrils lodged in a lot of this stuff. I would suspect this less at media companies that still have more than a handful of actual humans employed. So the networks are probably okay. On clickbait dot news I’d be more suspicious.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why The AI Bubble Was DESIGNED To Burst⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But can I tell you that - regardless of the content - this feels more like a blatant attempt at getting more YouTube views with a patreon link in tow?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are there so many Christmas songs, yet hardly any New Year's ones?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  By most accounts, 25 Dec as a day in the calendar is a historical accident. The boy was probably not born in winter. Calendar problems, ancient Roman holidays, and the proximity to the winter solstice made this a historical game of telephone until a pope just set it in stone (some orthodox churches don’t agree but January is probably only marginally more correct for his birthday).

  Traditionally, Christmas lasted so long it usurped solar new years. On the 8th day of Christmas my sweetheart gave to me … a shitload of weird stuff. Mostly birds, for some reason.

  Correct me if I’m wrong here but isn’t in UK English “Christmas” still used to describe the whole year end period encompassing the year change. To me they are two close but still separate events with a bit of decorational overlap. So I understand your question why there aren’t more New Years songs. But the answer may simply be: history and tradition. People tolerate Christmas tunes until the 31st and then they’re all cheered out. And NY for most is just a reminder that it’s back to work now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Denmark wants to ban VPNs to unlock foreign, illegal streams – and experts are worried⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, logically, it would make sense to push VPNs into illegality or create a lot of gray area there if you’re also planning to introduce the Aussie social media ban. Logically. I personally think both are no good.

  I’ve read some headlines about illegal streaming being targeted and shut down in Europe. If there was lobby money invested, I suspect it is the likes of sports rights holders who would like you to pay them extortionate amounts of money and not sail the high seas for the price of a VPN.

  Modstå, kære dansker.

  If omnipotent deity of your choice forbid this ever lands at the ECJ I’m not sure they will side with the privacy/freedom of speech side of the argument.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I did not have the feeling that we’re talking about fully formed adults here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think those particular comments, in writing and devoid of tone, not meant for public distribution (and she’s probably not running for political office or something justifying higher scrutiny), necessarily qualify as ableist per se, more skirting the line. I’ve said very dumb things in my youth and context is important, even in chat threads. But the rest of the picture you painted of that person is: asshole. So for my money it doesn’t really matter if she ticked that particular box as well. Stay away.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it a bad idea to learn Russian because of the war?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course not. If we blamed the language for the bad actions of the people who spoke it during, there would be virtually no language left in a pristine enough condition to learn.

  That being said, tempers can boil over. So maybe don’t shout your Duolingo answers at a full Starbucks. I mean, that’s good advice regardless of the language but you know what I mean.